2024-08-05 07:17:33
But apparently, someone clearly needs to be told: don’t take off your shoes on the plane. It’s ugly. “The cabin is cleaned before every flight, – in 2022 told Travel + Leisure pilot Patrick Smith, author of the website Ask the Pilot, “but it’s done superficially because it’s only 15 or 20 minutes.”
Even years after the COVID-19 pandemic, when we’re all more aware than ever about hygiene practices and the importance of not sharing germs, there’s no guarantee that airlines are doing the cleaning between flights that you’d expect. It might just be picking up the trash and cleaning the doorknobs.
“If a plane sits for more than eight hours (usually a long-haul plane), airlines do a deep cleaning,” he wrote about airline cleaning processes. The New York Times says Mike Arnott. “During the deep cleaning, all the seat cushions are pulled out, the seats are vacuumed and the carpet is shampooed throughout the aircraft cabin.”
However, cleanings in this mode do not occur often. It’s much more likely that the plane you boarded was at best “fogged,” meaning sprayed with electrostatically charged droplets of disinfectant. “It’s a little bit like rubbing a canister in your hair and then taping the canister to the wall,” Joshua Robertson, CEO of EMist, a Texas-based company that makes electrostatic atomizers for United Airlines and Alaska, told the Times. – Every molecule coming out of the nozzle is charged. They are attracted to surfaces like a magnet.”
In practice, it looks as if a cleaner, armed with a backpack full of disinfectant and a nozzle, fills every corner of the cabin with a fine mist. Once that’s done, the entire cleaning crew can enter the room and use disinfectant wipes to wipe down high-touch areas—such as chair arms and doorknobs—and, if there’s time (which there often isn’t), vacuum the carpet.
Obviously, such a system is not as rigorous as a deep cleaning, but it is certainly not the least you can expect. Airlines are known to be driven by profit margins, so every extra second counts. Spills or splashes are usually cleaned up, but not necessarily disinfected. If the plane needs to be redistributed more quickly, it is possible not to clean “with fog” – and worst of all, there is no requirement that the plane – even the toilets – be cleaned mid-flight. Yes, even if someone makes a mess.
All this basically means is to keep the shoes on. “Those who choose to go barefoot are exposed to bacteria and viruses that can have a negative impact on their health,” David Krause, owner of SyQuest USA, which makes cleaning products used on airplanes, told Travel + Leisure. “Also, there’s always the risk of getting a fungal infection.”
In fact, after reading all this, you probably want to wear gloves too? And maybe it wouldn’t even be the worst idea, writes IFL Science.
2024-08-05 07:17:33